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Below are my notes from 5/17/2017. I am trying to plan out my future, using results based action-plans.

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You should try to make a plan when you can.

It could be the most important thing you do in a single day.

Planning out what results you want, and working backwards until you can plan out a day, and realize that by sticking to your daily plan, you will eventually get to your goal.

Focus is EVERYTHING. Control what you are focusing on, and you will control what direction you go in.

What is the RESULT that you want?

RESULTS: (Get WAY more specific)1. Replace total job income with income from the internet. (Is that what you REALLY want? Or is that what you want in order to get what you REALLY want? Why do you want to be self-employed? Freedom. I don’t HAVE to do anything. Also it is more secure. It is better for my future.

2. A totally fit body. Why?

Retry — you need to have METRICS. How can you measure and track your progress so you know you are moving in the right direction? That is what is most important. DAILY measurement.

Weight and bodyfat. Those are two reliable metrics to track.

TO DOS:

-Create a list of the foods that you are allowed to eat, and only purchase those foods.

-Schedule when you will go to the gym

-Start buying your own food

-Start preparing your own food

-Pack your own lunches.

-Understand each muscle/muscle group and which exercise hits which muscles. That way you can develop areas by choice.

-Understand how much protein you are eating, and MEASURE how much you are consuming

GOALS WITH METRICS

220 lbs – 14% body fat.

(You should measure the size of your arms, legs, waist, etc. as well, and start tracking those as well.)

Version 2: (take these outcomes and decide: which of these outcomes is most important and work backwards from there.)
Replace total job income

I made a huge mistake. But I ended up learning a lot. So much so that I decided to re-balance my entire financial system.

As it turns out, I am saving a lot more than I should. Surprisingly, even though maxing out my Roth IRA is a great idea, with my income, I would have to live very frugally in order to support myself and continue contributing the maximum each year off my salary.

So my options are to triple my salary (more on that later) or rebalance my income distribution. I decided that I would re-balance. It’s actually encouraging to rebalance my income distribution because I feel like I have a lot more money. Before I was saving about 67% of my income, leaving me with just 33% to spend on whatever I wanted. Granted, I am living at home still and my expenses are low, I would not be able to support myself off 33% of my income if I were to move out. So this is a good change for me.

Note: A Roth 401(k) is money that was taken from your paycheck before you got it. This is amazing because not only is there a pre-tax employer match, but then your money grows tax free, and when you withdraw you don’t pay any taxes.

Put another way, not only is this FREE MONEY, its TAX-FREE FREE MONEY.

If that doesn’t convince you to setup your Roth 401(k) with your employer, I don’t know what will. 🙂

Re-balancing made me realize that the $1.4M (!) retirement fund I was building, while amazing to look at, cannot be achieved unless I plan to continue living at home, or make significantly more money. It was an awesome wake up call for me, so hopefully if there is anyone else in my situation, they can also realize the potential of maxing out their Roth IRA, but also how expensive it is to do so. [Edit: by the end of this “thinking-out-loud” post I secured a financially feasable $1.1M projected retirement.]

Q: What broker/investment service do you use?

A: Fancy you should ask. I use Wealthfront. Get $15,000 managed for free using my link, wealthfront.com/tom.

I went ahead and calculated how much you need to put into your Roth IRA to max it out each year.

Monthly contribution = $458.33

Recommended Roth IRA contribution % of income = 5%

$458.33 is 5% of $9166.60

$9166.60 is the after-tax monthly income from two paychecks.

Knowing that we can calculate the annual post-tax income by multiplying by 12. (9166.6*12 = $109,999.20)

Since this is post tax we should calculate pre-tax income for negotiation purposes in interviews. ($109,999.20/.74 = $148,647.57)

Q: But TOOOOM, I’m not smart like you I can’t do this.

A: One, that’s not a question. Two, Psychology recommendations aside, I would recommend reading this book to get started: I Will Teach You to Be Rich

This means that in order to make your Roth IRA contribution 5% of your post-tax income and still max out your contributions, you would need to make $148,647.57 per year.

Since this income is uncommon, the best alternative is to make your Roth IRA contribution more than 5% of your post-tax income. Lets try using 7% right now.

Using 7% of income as a Roth IRA contribution we can bring down pre-tax income to $106,176.84. Much more attainable (sarcasm).

So the ultimate solution that I came up with is to simply prioritize the Roth IRA contribution of ~$459 over everything else.

In my case that equals 21% of my take-home income. Add on the 3% employer match and you get to 24% of my income going to my investments. That’s about 1/4th.

Ugh… Trying to figure this all out. -_-

So here it is, my perfectly balanced (according to my goals.) income distribution:

The basic formula I went off in the past was writing as much as I could, not worrying about editing and just letting my thoughts and ideas flow — get it all out on paper.

Key Blogging Insight: Why even blog or learn how to write better?

I needed to remind myself why I wanted to write again in order to get started again. Writing is a skill that has multiple practical applications. For one, it helps make you a better communicator. You are able to see your thoughts on paper and through that understand your thought process more clearly.

I’ve been researching a lot lately on how to figure out what people are interested in learning about. I looked deeply into validation — that is talking with people to see if my business idea is something that people actually want.

Surprisingly, I realized that creating something for myself is really the way to go.

I know that I will be alienating a lot of people, but at the same time I will speak much more deeply to those who really care about what I create.

My audience is going to be people nearly exactly like me — 23 year old men who are employed, and tech savvy. The interests, dreams, and desires that I have, are likely to resonate with them as well.

I had a lot of great ideas in college — I wanted to create a podcast — create a stream, network with others and make money online. Lots of ideas — not a lot of execution.

A pivotal realization was that I can’t do this alone. I just can’t. Creating “passive” income online is tough, especially since there is so much competition and creating something that really stands out and provides a ton of value is tough.

My recent purchase and plans for this blog

I recently purchased a Black Friday Bundle by Bryan Harris. This purchase included a bundle of courses that all interest me and I plan on going through at some point.

The first purchase that I already worked through is Authority. It’s an ebook on why writing is a great idea for your business, and how one can go about making a lot of money writing.

It’s funny, even now as I write this I feel reconnected to this awesome feeling I used to get in college when I wrote.

The second product that was part of the bundle that I am working through is the rapid list building course. This course is all about creating an email list that you can develop a relationship with and provide value to as a consistent audience.

I’m really excited about building an email list because my employer has a huge email list and it is really encouraging to see that it is possible.

The first lesson in Bryan Harris’ rapid list building course is Module 1. Module 1 answers the questions: What is an email list, why do you want an email list, how do you build an email list, how to setup your first email sign-up form, and more.

Module 1 required that I post my calendar and introduce myself to the Facebook group which is really awesome. I always felt that I needed community – and now I have it.

This is what my calendar looks like as of today:

And the post I made on FB:

“Hi everyone. My name is Tom, I’m 23 and working my first job out of college and looking to create an email list that will inform other ambitious college graduates about personal finance, negotiation, business building and psychology.

It’s a pleasure to be a part of this community and I am looking to help out everyone/anyone in any way I can.

Please feel free to message me with requests for collaboration or any questions, or to just say hi.

Nice to meet you! :)”

I already have a few subscribers but I still have a long way to go, so this will be exciting.

In the past I have written about Psychology, but I think this will prove to be really exciting to write about, since it is something I find exciting to learn.

The promise of a 1,000 person email list means a consistent audience for your work, which could mean being able to support yourself financially instead of working a job.

This translates to a lot of extra time to develop skills and scale up the email list from 1,000 subscribers to 2,000 and beyond.

It’s easy to think mindfulness isn’t important, or that we don’t have time to meditate.

We have our constant day-to-day tasks to complete, and the little free time we do have, we want to use how we want.

But, counterintuitively, the more we feel we don’t have time to meditate, the more we need it.

This post will outline the benefits of meditation, and then describe how you can get started meditating today. (Note: the article gets a little scientific, so feel free to skip right to the meditation walk-through if you aren’t interested in the research.)

“Meditation more than anything in my life was the biggest ingredient of whatever success I’ve had.” –Ray Dalio, Billionaire, Founder of world’s largest hedge fund firm, Bridgewater Associates

Your Brain on Meditation

There are two parts of the brain affected by meditation that we will discuss: the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and the hippocampus.

The anterior cingulate cortex is a component of the brain’s limbic (nervous) system, and is responsible in part for the development of self-regulation. In addition to the critical function of self-regulation, the ACC is also involved in high-level functions like reward anticipation, decision-making, impulse control, and emotions.

Put simply, the ACC allows you to focus, avoid distractions, and avoid impulsivity. Because of the ACC you are able to work methodically, logically, and deliberately.

“A growing body of research also suggests that meditation promotes beneficial changes in CNS [Central Nervous System] dopaminergic and other neurochemical systems, and increases blood flow, oxygen delivery, and glucose utilization in specific regions of the brain associated with mood elevation, memory, and attentional processing, including the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, and anterior cingulate gyrus.”

What this research ultimately suggests, is that there are many benefits to meditation, related to the brain and spinal cord’s function.

What I find most interesting, however, is the research on meditation’s effect on mitigating age-related mental deterioration.

Long-term meditation studies have been associated with a thicker cortex, increased grey matter, and attentional performance. This is significant because once we reach a certain age, our brain starts to lose white and grey brain matter. This is known as cortical thinning.

What if I make a mistake?

“If you live long enough, you’ll make mistakes. But if you learn from them, you’ll be a better person. It’s how you handle adversity, not how it affects you. The main thing is never quit, never quit, never quit.” – William J. Clinton

Sometimes we mess up. Maybe we hurt someone and feel guilty. We all have.

Guilt is the emotion that our brain sends to us when it believes we acted against one of our values.

The best way to deal with guilt is to notice it.

Thank your brain for doing its job, and know it’s doing what it’s designed to do: alert you when you have gone against one of your values.

To resolve this situation, we notice the emotion, thank our brain for working properly, and we resolve to never let this happen again. The purpose of the emotion has been fulfilled, and the brain stops sending the guilt signal.

Sometimes, the pain of guilt can be useful, as can any emotion at the right time.

What is important is the ability to control our emotions.

When we feel guilty when we are at work, or need to be in a power/strong state, guilt may not be good.

Use this to help you get in the state you need to function best.

What is Guilt?

“If we only wanted to be happy, it would be easy; but we want to be happier than other people, which is almost always difficult, since we think them happier than they are.” –Charles de Montesquieu

Guilt sometimes comes from failing to do our “should.” In Meg Jay’s, The Defining Decade, she has a chapter on belief about how our lives should look.

When we beat ourselves up it’s because we feel we are not living according to our blueprint. Our blueprint is what we think our life should look like.

And because we compare to other people, this blueprint might not be fair.

If you have a blueprint that you can’t possibly match, and your happiness is based on that blueprint, won’t you be unhappy?

I’m not saying don’t be ambitious, but take a look at your blueprint.

Maybe you’ve set standards for yourself that are too extreme, or unrealistic for where you are right now.

The argument that, “I need to have high standards or else I won’t have the drive to achieve” isn’t true.

When we are in a state of anxiety, stress, and pressure, we are actually worse off.

Don’t you agree?

Can’t you think of a time when you rushed something, and it didn’t come out as well as if you had taken your time?

It’s the same for pushing yourself to do things – it doesn’t work as well as if you had slowed down and been methodical.

Surprisingly, being kind to ourselves not only improves our mood and quality of life, but it also improves our results.